Live Metal Prices

Understanding precious metals prices

Precious metals prices reflect the global spot market — the price to buy or sell one troy ounce of gold, silver, platinum or palladium for immediate settlement. These markets trade almost around the clock across London, New York, Zurich, Hong Kong and Sydney, so the spot price you see here moves continuously as supply, demand, currency values and macroeconomic sentiment shift.

Gold is the most widely held precious metal, prized as a store of value and a hedge against inflation and currency debasement. Silver blends monetary demand with heavy industrial use in solar panels, electronics and electrical contacts, which makes its price more volatile than gold. Platinum and palladium are rarer still, driven largely by the automotive catalytic converter market as well as jewelry and industrial applications.

Copper sits apart from the four precious metals. It is a base metal, quoted in US dollars per pound on COMEX and per metric tonne on the London Metal Exchange rather than per troy ounce, and its price is driven by construction, power grids, electric vehicles and the wider energy transition. Plenty of stackers still collect copper rounds and kilo bars, so we convert the live copper price to US dollars per troy ounce (dividing the per-pound quote by 14.5833) to let you compare it directly with gold and silver on the table above.

When you buy physical bullion, you pay a premium above the spot prices shown on this page. That premium covers refining, minting, distribution and the dealer’s margin, and it varies by product — sovereign coins such as the American Eagle or Canadian Maple Leaf usually carry higher premiums than generic bars. Tracking the spot price helps you judge whether a dealer’s premium is fair and time your purchases.

BullionTally lets you record every coin and bar you own and revalues your entire collection automatically at these live spot prices, in 153 currencies — privately, on your own device. Whether you stack silver, invest in gold, or diversify across all four precious metals, you can see the real-time worth of your holdings at a glance.

Spot, futures and the numbers on this page

There is no single official gold price. The bulk of global trade happens over the counter between banks, refiners and institutions in London, settling in 400 ounce Good Delivery bars. Twice each London business day an electronic auction sets the LBMA benchmark, which is the reference used in a great many commercial contracts. Alongside that, COMEX runs the world's most liquid futures market, and the Shanghai Gold Exchange operates a physically settled market in yuan with its own local premium.

The headline figures on this page are spot prices. The candlestick charts are drawn from exchange futures data, which is why the two can differ slightly: a futures price includes the cost of carry between now and the delivery month, so the front contract normally trades a little above spot. Neither number is wrong, and the gap is usually small, but it is worth knowing why it exists before you compare them.

Troy ounces, grams and kilos

Precious metals are weighed in troy ounces, not the ounces used for food. One troy ounce equals exactly 31.1034768 grams, against roughly 28.35 grams for a standard avoirdupois ounce — a difference of about ten per cent, which is more than enough to turn a fair deal into a poor one. To convert a spot quote to a per-gram price, divide by 31.1034768; to get a per-kilo figure, multiply the per-gram price by one thousand.

Purity then adjusts the result. A 22 karat sovereign is 91.67 per cent gold, so its metal value is its gross weight multiplied by 0.9167 and then by the per-gram price. A 24 karat bullion coin stamped 999.9 is treated as pure for practical purposes. Getting this step right is the single most common arithmetic error stackers make when valuing older or jewellery-grade pieces.

Reading the ratios

The gold to silver ratio — the number of silver ounces one gold ounce will buy — is the most watched relationship in the sector. It has swung between roughly 30 and 120 over the past century. A high ratio means silver is historically cheap relative to gold and is often read as a signal to favour silver; a low ratio suggests the reverse. It is a slow indicator rather than a trading signal, and it can stay stretched for years.

The platinum to gold ratio tells a different story. Platinum traded above gold for most of the modern era and has spent recent years well below it, reflecting the collapse in diesel autocatalyst demand and the substitution of palladium and platinum for one another as their relative prices move. Watching copper alongside all of them adds an industrial read: when copper and silver rise together while gold lags, the market is pricing growth rather than fear.

Currencies matter as much as metal

Every price on this page is quoted in US dollars, because that is how the global market works. If you live outside the United States, your return is the metal move combined with the currency move, and the two frequently point in different directions. Australian, Canadian and New Zealand stackers regularly see their holdings rise in local terms on a day the dollar gold price fell.

That is why BullionTally values holdings in 153 currencies rather than forcing everything through dollars. You record what you actually paid, in the currency you actually paid in, and the app shows you what the metal is worth today in the currency you actually spend.